With just over a week before the NIU men's soccer team reports for preseason camp, sophomore midfielder Jayson LeSeth spoke to the Journal & Topics Newspapers about his first season as a Huskie, what it was like to become a Division I soccer player and the upcoming season. LeSeth and the Huskies will be on the field for the first time on August 12 when they host Notre Dame in an exhibition contest at 12:30 p.m.

Former Huskie wide receiver Landon Cox signed with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Friday. Cox, who signed with the Cincinnati Bengals after his career at NIU, played in 50 games for Northern Illinois, starting 30. He had 1,109 yards on 98 receptions and eight touchdowns during his career.

As you all know, the Mid-American Conference hosted its 2012 Football Media Day yesterday at Ford Field in Detroit. Head coach Dave Doeren, defensive end Sean Progar and quarterback Jordan Lynch returned to the site of its 2011 MAC championship victory to discuss the upcoming 2012 season and defense of their title. The Chicago Tribune's Fred Mitchell and Steve Nitz of the Daily Chronicle made the trek to the Motor City

Chicago Tribune

Huskies' hopes high despite new faces on offense

Daily Chronicle

Hungry to return to Detroit

The NIU football team hosted its fourth annual Football 101 last night at Huskie Stadium. Close to 100 women were given an up close and personal look at what it takes to be a Huskie football player. Steve Nitz of the Daily Chronicle was on hand and filed this story.

Just a few days returned from her trip to China for the China-USA Challenge Invitational Tournament, NIU Volleyball senior middle blocker Mary Kurisch graced the cover page of WisconsinHigh.com as she shared her overseas experience in an interview with WisconsinHigh.com's Todd Mishler.  Click here to check it out.  Click here to read her blogs from China.

NIU men's golfer Griffin Bauman carded a three-under 69 today at the 63rd Annual Illinois Open Championship at The Glen Club in Glenview, Ill. Bauman is three-under for the tournament after 36 holes and is currently in a tie for seventh-place overall. Bauman finished his second round with a pair of birdies and will look to continue to climb the leaderboard on Wednesday in the final round of the 54-hole event. 

Anthony Zilis of the Daily Chronicle recently caught up with three members of the NIU men's soccer team, Jordan Godsey, Isaac Kannah and Sean Totsch, who have spent the summer playing with the Chicago Fire's Premier Development League (PDL) team. The PDL is the highest level of amateur soccer in the U.S., featuring most of the top college players from around the country. In the case of the Chicago Fire team, the Huskies received the added benefit of working alongside professional players throughout the summer. 

As you may recall, former Huskie Jake Hermsen became the first NIU baseball player drafted by a Major League Baseball club since 2008 on June 6th. Since then, Hermsen has made five appearances and starts for the Los Angeles Dodgers Rookie League affiliate, Ogden Raptors.

The New London, Wis., native currently owns an 0-2 record and has pitched 24.1 innings this season. However, his record on the mound is not what's turning heads thus far into his Minor League Baseball career. 

In his five starts, Hermsen has only allowed 22 hits, 14 strikeouts, six walks and has only surrendered 10 runs, six of which have been earned. He is second on the team in earned run average (2.22) amongst pitchers with two or more starts (leader has 0.82 in 11 IP) and owns an impressive walks and hits per inning (WHIP) average of 1.15.

Hermsen was drafted in the 28th round by the Dodgers (866th overall) this season, becoming the first Huskie drafted since Bobby Stevens (Baltimore Oriorles, 16th round) and Trevor Feeney (Detroit Tigers, 31st round) were drafted in the 2008 MLB Draft.

Which leads to a perfect segway into the second half of this Huskies Happening.

Stevens, who appeared in NIU games from 2006-08, made his Rookie League debut in 2008 after being drafted and worked his way up through the Orioles farm system, beginning the 2012 season in Triple-A Norfolk, where he played in three games.

After being released by the Baltimore High-A club Fredrick Keys, he was signed by the Lynchburg Hillcats in the same league (Carolina) and has made 14 appearances this season for the team. At the plate he is batting .167 with a home run and five RBI, however, he is batting a combined .246 with his four combined teams during the 2012 season. In his 12 games in the outfield, he has eight putouts and three assists in 12 chances (1 error, .917 fielding percentage).

Football season is just around the corner - in both the United States and in many places around the world, including the United Kingdom - Though the version we are used to in the states is a little different to those abroad. 

With training camp and friendly matches currently underway in England, there's a lot of news to be posted on the professional clubs websites. For Huddersfield Town, a team that recently gained promotion to England's second tier of football (one division lower than Manchester United or reigning champions Manchester City), there's a lot of news to share with transfer news (the free agency market) and of general stories for the upcoming season.

As you might remember in May, The Daily Chronicle wrote a story on junior-to be Amy Carr and her plans for the summer, that included a trip to South Africa where she taught the beautiful game to underprivileged youth in the country. While in South Africa, she also enjoyed the sites of the country and went on safari during her last week in the country. Needless to say, it had to have been the experience of a lifetime.

If you ask Amy what her favorite club is, she will promptly tell you that it is Huddersfield Town and the passion for the club runs through the family as her father is huge supporter of the club. When Carr went on her trip and solicited donations online for her trip to benefit the youth, the Terriers donated jerseys to the kids for Amy to distribute to first year students at the Cape Town's Observatory Junior School.

Huddersfield Town featured the story on its website and interviewed Amy to recall her experience of delivering the kits. 

In her two seasons at Northern Illinois, Carr has logged 35 career starts in 37 careers caps with a career goals against average 1.46 and nine carer clean sheets, third-most in program history. Before she came to Northern Illinois, she played with Reading FC and Chelsea FC's women's teams and was selected to represent England at the FIFA U17 World Cup in New Zealand.

The Northern Illinois Huskies check in at No. 54 on the Pre-Snap Read preseason countdown for 2012, putting NIU ahead of every MAC team except for one. 

Paul Myerberg has some good facts in here, including that NIU is one of just 11 teams in the country to win 11 games over the last two seasons and is one of just TWO teams with an APR of 980 or above on that list. 

Myerberg also mentions the Huskies' legacy of 1,000-yard rushers and notes that not even current some of the traditional "powerhouse" programs (Alabama, Arkansas, Tennessee, Notre Dame to name a few) can match NIU's mark for consistency over the last 12 years.

He breaks down Jordan Lynch (loves his potential), the offensive line possibilities and says that in Sean Progar and Alan Baxter the Huskies have "the best [defensive] end pairing in the MAC."

You'll have to read the story to see more, as well as Myerberg's complete prediction, but you won't be disappointed. 

FYI - Pre-Snap Read ranked the Huskies #59 in its 2011 preseason countdown and #55 in 2010.  In each of those years, he had to adjust the Huskies higher.

Steve Nitz of the Daily Chronicle caught up with local product Marckie Hayes this week. He talked with the Sycamore native about his adjustment to the college game and how he is taking advantage of his opportunity to play on special teams in this story.

While the Huskies' season opener against Iowa at Soldier Field is still 50 days away, it's never too early for a breakdown of the game - albeit from the Iowa perspective. Brian Bennett of ESPN.com filed this preview of the game today. 

Former Northern Illinois University quarterback Chandler Harnish enjoyed his "Irrelevant Week" festivities in Newport Beach, Calif. last week. Harnish discussed his time at NIU, being drafted by his hometown Indianapolis Colts and Mr. Irrelevant status in an interview with Charles Davis of the NFL Network.

Huskie fans can relive Northern Illinois' exciting 63-60 victory over Toledo tonight at 8:30 p.m. Central Time on ESPNU. ESPNU is counting down the Top 25 college football games of 2011 and NIU's  shootout with the Rockets comes in at No. 19 on the countdown.